Unplanned downtime hurts productivity, disrupts schedules, and inflates costs. Preventive maintenance helps—but when it’s managed manually, even simple tasks fall through the cracks. Many manufacturers using Business Central are now automating maintenance workflows with structured work orders, real usage data, and scheduled planning windows.
Here’s how preventive maintenance is being built directly into production workflows—without relying on spreadsheets or separate tools.
How do I track the right equipment for maintenance?
Start by defining the assets you want to monitor. This might include machines, vehicles, or tooling—any production-critical equipment. From there, assign attributes like activation date, usage type, and whether it's linked to a fixed asset or treated as a zero-cost stock item.
Once set up, the system starts tracking runtime, output, or calendar duration based on your production activity.
How can I schedule tasks based on actual usage?
Instead of relying on static calendars, some manufacturers trigger work orders based on real machine usage. After defining tasks—like inspections or part replacements—you set thresholds like:
- Every 500 runtime hours
- Every 10,000 units produced
- Every 30 days of operation
These intervals are automatically updated as production is posted, so scheduling stays aligned with real activity.
Can I automate maintenance work order creation?
Yes. With a planning worksheet, you can schedule all due tasks for a given window—weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Work orders are generated automatically based on the tasks, intervals, and assets you've configured.
The result is a proactive system that creates orders at the right time, without manual oversight.
How does this connect to production, inventory, and technicians?
Once scheduled, each maintenance order functions like a production order. You can define routing steps, assign required parts, and block equipment capacity during maintenance. Technicians can track labor, log parts used, and update meter readings—all of which update the asset’s history and reset its maintenance intervals.
Spare parts required for maintenance also show up in the planning worksheet, so your inventory stays aligned with upcoming tasks.
You can walk through the full preventive maintenance setup in this blog post.
Disclosure: This post summarizes how Business Central users are automating preventive maintenance workflows. No paid links or promotional content included.
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